The Friday Night Quilter's Gathering...

Thank you to Toni for writing this post about the Friday night Quilters' Gathering. 

On this evening we all meet at the Sergeants Mess at the Australian Defence Force Academy for a Quilters gathering, we gathered with such excitement as we were all volunteers with the same aim to support our troops, This was a valuable opportunity  to meet other quilters and to listen to 4 guest speakers one of which was an extraordinary Quilter who has lived overseas and is world renowned

The evening began with lots of chatter amongst us all, getting to know each other – new friends in the making, We were all given a lovely gift pack of items that were donated from various companies

First up Jan-Maree presented a the Corps of  Cadets Mess quilt to a group of ten officer cadets that came along to receive it.  Before the presentation their spokesperson thanked us for what we do. Once the quilt was presented we were told that the quilt will be displayed in pride of place in their mess. The quilt features the The Charter of the Royal Military College Duntroon and the cadets recited it in unison.  It was very special. 

Next we listen to a lady called Gwen who was married to a soldier that had died in very tragic circumstances,

her story was heart renching outlining the struggles that her husband endured in his line of duty, and how his

absence from family life once he recieved a quilt from Aussie Heros helped him stay connected to his wife and children so far away

That connection she felt was of great importance and Gwen felt that without the quilt life would have been so different for her husband

No photos of Gwen as we were all too emotional, taking photos did not seem right. 

Our second speaker was Donna who shared a little about her job as a Gender Advisor in the military and on deployment.  She shared also the challenges of being a mother on deployment and talked about how much her quilt meant to her.   She explained how she interpretted the colours on her quilt. Bright colours representing her likes and her personality and then the grey background representing her Navy career.  Finally the five hearts on the quilt, two large ones and three small ones, each with her family member's names on them.

Next we had a service woman who enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy when she was young. she gave a very light hearted and jovial journey of her achievements and struggles being away from her family for long periods of time and serving on Submarines and how she filled in her time with sewing knitting craft etc in a small 
confined space. She was very honoured to recieve a quilt from Aussie Heros which she displayed for us to see.

Next we were delighted to have a very famous world renowed Quilter - Jenny Bowker who has travelled extensivly thru out the world capturing life in a graphic way thru quilting to a level of total perfection. A display of her quilts was a sight to behold and we were able to see close up her incredible talent, She had amazing stories that delighted and

surprised us, she was such a delight and showed us in her quilts her many varied talents depicting subjects from all corners of the globe thru her quilting.

Just a selection of Jenny's beautiful quilts.....

After listenning to these incredible speakers we all gathered for supper and an opportunity to futher get to know each other.

thanks

Toni xxxxxxxxxxx